Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

females. According to this data, too, theoverall school life expectancy for today’sadults in the Arab region as a whole waseight years (nine for males and seven forfemales), or the equivalent of completingthe year before the end of basic education.Nevertheless, there is considerable variationfrom one country to the next. The rate forthe youngest adults is the higher educationlevel in Bahrain and Libya, whereas it isonly the end of primary school for theircounterparts in Mauritania, Sudan, andYemen.The second approach for estimatingthe level of education of adults agedtwenty-five to fifty is to follow theenrolment figures of these sectors in thevarious levels of education from 1970 to2005. 74 According to the findings of thisapproach, Arab countries have workedhard to eradicate illiteracy. Some 50 percent of those who had formerly beenincluded in the statistics on illiteracycan, at least, read and write today. Thefindings of seventeen Arab countries forwhich statistical data is available 75 showgreat strides forward in the educationallevels from one age bracket to the nextamong adults in virtually all Arab states,in spite of large discrepancies from onecountry to the next and within the variousage brackets. According to these findings,the median level of education of the agegroup that is today fifty years old is 2.5(less than end of the intermediate level),whereas that of the group that is todaytwenty-five years old is 4.0 (the secondaryschool level). This is equivalent to fiveyears more schooling than the older agegroup.Due to population growth, the youngerthe age-bracket the more weight it shouldcarry when assessing the overall level ofeducation of adults aged 25 to 50 in Arabcountries. Taking approximations of therelative weights of these age-brackets, themedian educational level for them is 3.2,or a little higher than the intermediatelevel. Nevertheless, Arab countries varyconsiderably with respect to this average, 80which can range from as high as secondaryeducation, as in Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar,and Kuwait, or even slightly higher, as inLibya, to below the end of the primarylevel, as in Djibouti and Somalia. At leasthalf the countries concerned, however, arein the vicinity of the intermediate level ofeducation. 81Thus the knowledge level attainedthrough the educational systems byadults in Arab countries–particularlyTABLE 3-5Estimated knowledge capital acquired througheducation among adults (25 to 50 years)in Arab countries in 2008 (per cent)CountryLiteracy Ratein 2005ASchool ٍ lifeexpectancy rateamong adults(aged 25 to 50 * )BAverage score(A + B)/2Kuwait 94 51 73Libya 86 57 72Bahrain 88 55 72Qatar 89 52 71Jordan 91 47 69Lebanon 86 52 69UAE 89 45 67OccupiedPalestinianTerritories92 .. ..Syria 82 44 63Saudi Arabia 84 38 61Egypt 71 48 60Tunisia 76 43 60Oman 83 35 59Algeria 74 43 59Iraq 74 40 57Comoros 73 .. ..Morocco 54 32 43Djibouti 65 21 43Sudan 61 .. ..Yemen 56 .. ..Mauritania 55 .. ..Somalia .. 19 ..Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Data Centre; figures in columns B and “Average score” were assembled by RamziSalama, Report core team member.*As a percentage of 7.33, or eighteen years of study, taken as a reasonable maximum, as above.EDUCATION AND THE FORMATION OF KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL119